Homer Louis "Boots" Randolph III (June 3, 1927
Biography
Randolph was born in Paducah, Kentucky, on June 3, 1927. and raised in Cadiz, Kentucky. He said a brother gave him the nickname "Boots" to avoid confusion, since his father and he had the same first name, though the reason for the nickname choice is unknown.
As a child, Randolph learned to play music with his family's band, who entered talent shows to win food to help get by during the Great Depression.
Randolph graduated from Central High School in Evansville, Indiana, and served in the United States Army toward the end of World War II, playing saxophone, trombone, and vibraphone in the U.S. Army Band until his discharge in 1946.
After his service in the Army, he played with Dink Welch's Kopy Kats in Decatur, Illinois, from 1948 to 1954. He briefly resided in Louisville, Kentucky, before returning to Decatur to start his own group. Early in his career, he often billed himself as Randy Randolph. In 1957, he left Decatur and relocated to the Nashville, Tennessee, suburb of Hendersonville and was signed to RCA Victor by Chet Atkins in 1958. While Randolph's initial recordings for the label were not commercial successes, they recognized his potential as a session musician, and Randolph became part of the Nashville A-Team. Randolph was also successful on Billboards album charts, having 14 entries between 1963 and 1972. Boots With Strings from 1966 reached number 36 and stayed on the chart for nearly two years.
Randolph often maintained a schedule of over 200 recording and performance commitments annually.
Personal life and death
Randolph married Dee Baker in 1948; they had a son, Randy, and a daughter, Linda. On July 3, 2007, Randolph died at Skyline Medical Center in Nashville, after suffering a brain hemorrhage.